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The First Letter to the Corinthians 14

14 You should seek to love others always. Also, you should eagerly seek that the Holy Spirit specially empowers you, particularly that you might be able to proclaim what God says. 2 You should desire this because people who talk in unknown languages are talking with God, not with other people. This is because no one knows what they are saying. Rather, they say secret things as the Holy Spirit empowers them. 3 On the other hand, those who proclaim what God says do talk to other people. They help other believers become stronger, urge other believers to act in proper ways, and comfort other believers. 4 People who talk in unknown languages help themselves become stronger. On the other hand, people who proclaim what God says help the group of believers become stronger.

5 I want all of you to talk in unknown languages. What I want even more, however, is that you might proclaim what God says. Proclaiming what God says is more important and helpful than talking in unknown languages. Of course, if someone explains the unknown language, then it too can help believers become stronger.

6 Here is what I am trying to say, my fellow believers: imagine that I, for example, visited you, and I talked in unknown languages. I would not be helping you at all. To actually help you, I would need to reveal things to you, help you know things, proclaim what God says to you, or teach you. 7 Even things that are not alive but that we use to make sounds illustrate what I am saying. When someone plays a flute or a harp, the instrument must make various distinct sounds. Otherwise, no one would understand what a person plays on the flute or the harp, since all the sounds would be the same. 8 Further, suppose that a trumpet did not make clear sounds when a person used it to warn others. No one would know that they needed to get ready to fight the enemy. 9 Whenever you do not use words that other people recognize when you talk, you are like an instrument that does not make a clear sound. No one will comprehend what you are saying, and you will be like a person who talks to nobody. 10 It seems to be true that a great many varieties of languages exist. Every one of them communicates clearly. 11 So, when I, for example, do not understand how a language communicates, I am a stranger to everyone who speaks that language, and they are strangers to me. 12 So, here is what you must do: because you desire that the Holy Spirit specially empowers you, you should strive more and more to use what the Holy Spirit empowers you to do to help the group of believers become stronger.

13 Therefore, those who talk in unknown languages should ask God to enable them to explain what they are saying. 14 When I, for example, pray to God in an unknown language, only part of me is praying since I am not thinking about what I am saying. 15 Therefore, here is what you and I should do. We should pray to God not only with just some parts of us but also by thinking about what we are saying. We should sing to God not only with just some parts of us but also by thinking about what we are singing. 16 Imagine that people who do not understand unknown languages hear you praising God when you are using just some parts of you, and you are not thinking about what you are saying. Those people will not be able to participate when you praise God because they do not understand the unknown language that you are speaking. 17 In this situation, you praise God appropriately. However, you do not help other people become stronger. 18 I give thanks to God that I talk in unknown languages more than you all do. 19 However, when I gather together with fellow believers to worship God, I want to speak only a few words that I think about. In this way, I can teach other believers and not just myself. It is better for me to do that than to say a million words in an unknown language.

20 My fellow believers, I do not want you to be foolish about these things, like little children are. Rather, you should know much about these things, like a fully grown adult does. You should only be like little children by not doing what is wrong. 21 The prophet Isaiah wrote in the Scriptures what the Lord says,

“I will talk to my people Israel

by means of people who speak foreign languages.

However, they will not listen to me in this way.”

22 Therefore, talking in unknown languages signifies that God judges people who do not believe in the Messiah, not people who do believe in the Messiah. On the other hand, proclaiming what God says signifies that God acts kindly toward people who believe in the Messiah, not toward people who do not believe in the Messiah. 23 So, imagine that the whole group of believers gathered together to worship God, and all of you talked in unknown languages. Imagine further that people who do not understand unknown languages or who do not believe in the Messiah visit your group. They will tell others that you are crazy. 24 On the other hand, imagine that all of you proclaimed what God says. Imagine further that any people who do not believe in the Messiah or who do not understand unknown languages visit your group. Everything that you say will show them and confront them with what they have done wrong. 25 In this way, everyone will know the things that these visitors hide from others. In response, they will kneel down and worship God. They will proclaim to others that God truly is with you.

26 My fellow believers, here is what I mean. Whenever you gather together to worship God, each believer has something to do. Some sing songs, others teach, others reveal things, others speak in an unknown language, others interpret an unknown language. Believers should do all these things to help other believers become stronger. 27 When believers are talking in unknown languages, only two or three at most should speak. They should talk one after the other, and someone needs to explain what they are saying. 28 On the other hand, when believers gather to worship God and a person who can explain the unknown language is not there, everyone who can talk in unknown languages should keep quiet. Instead of talking out loud, they should talk in unknown languages privately to God.

29 Similarly, around two or three people who proclaim what God says should speak. Everyone else should decide whether what they say is correct or incorrect. 30 Now, whenever God reveals something to a person who is listening to someone else proclaim what God says when believers gather together, the person who is speaking should stop speaking. 31 You should do that so that everyone has a chance to proclaim what God says, one after the other. In that way, everyone learns something, and everyone becomes stronger. 32 Those who proclaim what God says control how and when they proclaim it. 33 That is true because what is peaceful and orderly, not what is disorderly, characterizes God.

I want you to act like all the other people whom God has set apart for himself act when they gather together to worship God. 34 Wives should keep quiet when believers gather together and their husbands are speaking. They should not talk but rather honor and obey their husbands. They should do this because that is what we find in God’s law. 35 Now, when wives want to learn more about what their husbands are saying, they should ask their husbands questions in their own houses. They should do this because wives who talk when believers gather together and their husbands are speaking shame themselves and their families. 36 If you dislike what I have said, remember that you are not the source of what God has said, and you are not the only ones who have heard and believed what God has said. 37 All people who consider themselves to be those who proclaim what God says or those whom the Holy Spirit has specially empowered must recognize that the Lord himself requires what I am writing to you. 38 On the other hand, you should not recognize as authoritative any people who do not recognize that the Lord requires what I have said.

39 In the end, my fellow believers, eagerly seek to proclaim what God says. Further, do not prohibit people from speaking unknown languages. 40 Finally, when you gather together to worship God, you should always act in honorable and orderly ways.

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